DaRon Bland to Miss Start of Season with Dallas Cowboys Due to Stress Fracture
The Dallas Cowboys have announced that cornerback DaRon Bland will miss the start of the season after sustaining a stress fracture in his foot during training camp in Southern California. The 25-year-old will undergo surgery in the coming days and is expected to be sidelined for up to eight weeks.
According to a tweet from Calvin Watkins, Bland experienced foot discomfort on Wednesday of last week during training camp in Oxnard. Subsequent imaging revealed a stress fracture in his foot, which will require surgery to repair the injury. He is currently projected to be out for 6-8 weeks, which means he will miss at least the first four games of the season.
Bland is entering his third season in the league and had a league-high nine interceptions last season with the Cowboys, five of which he returned for touchdowns. He also had a career-high 69 total tackles and helped keep the Dallas defense on track after star cornerback Trevon Diggs tore his ACL early last fall.
Diggs, who missed 15 games last season, returned to full team drills at training camp and is on track to start the season. The Cowboys will likely lean on Jourdan Lewis and newcomers Caelen Carson and Andrew Booth to help pick up the slack without Bland to start the year.
The Cowboys went 12-5 last season and won the NFC East for a second time in the past three years. They were knocked out of the wild-card round of the playoffs. Defensive coordinator Dan Quinn left the Cowboys after last season to take over as the Washington Commanders head coach, which led Dallas to hire former Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer to replace him.
The Cowboys will open the season against the Cleveland Browns on September 8.
